Thursday, June 16, 2011

Quinoa Salad

If you have never tried quinoa, well first of all you are nuts :) and second add it to your grocery list and give it a shot. Quinoa is so delicious and its good for you too.
This salad is meant to be a very simple and fresh summer side. The tofu I made to go with it had very dominant flavors so I wanted this to be more mellow.

Ingredients

1 cup dry quinoa

1 1/2 cup water

1 tsp dried oregano

2/3 cup diced zucchini

1 onion

1 plum tomato

a handful of fresh spinach chopped

2/3 cup chopped broccoli florets

1 clove garlic

4-5 tbs balsamic vinaigrette (Italian dressing works really well too for a different taste)

Feta in oil and herbs

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp dried parsley

First things your soak your quinoa in some water for about 5 minutes,

then drain with a sieve and put in a pot with 1 1/2 cup of water and 1 tsp of oregano. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn the temp down to about 1 and let simmer covered for 15 minutes.
When the quinoa has finished cooking, fluff it with a fork and let cool

Chop up all your vegetables. For the onion I chose to put them in a frying pan and cook them just long enough so they start to soften and taste less strong I also added the garlic to the pan right at the end.

(The onion should look like this)

Toss all of your vegetables in a bowl and mix in the quinoa.

Add your seasonings. Adjust the amount of vinaigrette or dressing to how you like it. I added chunks of feta in oil with herbs and also added a few spoonfuls of the oil it was marinated in. I really find the feta adds a lot, so if you like feta do not skip out on this ingredient.

(this stuff is delicious)

and here is my complete dinner

The recipie for the tofu is in my last post.

Enjoy!!!

and as always I would love to hear comments or anything you did differently

About Me

my favorite thing in the world to do is cook. I guess you could say my life revolves around food. I have been a vegetarian for 6 years. Being a vegetarian has definitely increased my creativity in the kitchen.